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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23594374">Hunters</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/CheekyChi/pseuds/CheekyChi'>CheekyChi</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Monsters Among Us [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Amputation, Backstory, Gen, Hostage Situations, Military, Military Background, Pre-Android Revolution (Detroit: Become Human), Terrorism</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 23:55:49</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>10,428</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23594374</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/CheekyChi/pseuds/CheekyChi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Backstory for my original character of "Monsters among us". You don't need to read it to make sense of that story, but it makes a few things easier to understand. </p><p>In 2031, human soldiers were replaced by androids. Jade Novak was one of the last few to not work together with those military androids. When the situation after a freshly formed peace-contract escalates, she gets thrown into a situation that only accelerates the goverments choice to swap humans for machines in warzones.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Elijah Kamski &amp; Original Character(s), Elijah Kamski &amp; Original Female Character(s), Original Character &amp; Original Character, Original Chloe | RT600 &amp; Elijah Kamski</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Monsters Among Us [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1698349</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Hunters</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>~2031~</p><p>Her senses returned to her slowly; too slow in her opinion. She didn’t know how long her consciousness had been drifting in the black void, completely separated from her body.<br/>
Jade had never been knocked unconscious by brute force before, but she had not expected it to be like this. Was it supposed to be like this?<br/>
She had expected to fall asleep like she did when having anaesthesia years back when getting her appendix removed. But now, she could observe how her body slowly woke up again. </p><p>The first sense to return to her was the sense of smell.  She could pick up on the stale air around her, reeking of sweat, blood, faintly of charcoal and chemicals she could not identify. Nothing she could link to any place she’d ever been before; most likely her body had been moved while she had been passed out.</p><p>Slowly she could start feeling the inside of her mouth again, and with it the strange flavours on her tongue.  Her mouth was dry, her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth; she could fairly taste blood, as if she had bitten down on her lips or tongue within the last few days. She only realized the taste of blood after a moment due to the nauseating, dry taste in her mouth, which reminded her of barbeque and roasted marshmallows which her childhood friends and family always insisted on making every Sunday evening. It took her some more moments to connect the taste with the smell of charcoal – probably fire. </p><p>After a few confusing moments in which she tried to assess the situation with this limited information, she started feeling her whole body again.<br/>
A cold, overall tingle swept through her. Similar to how arms or legs felt when circulation had been cut off for too long – not painful, but annoying. It dulled all the other sensations and required full attention to focus on those. The floor underneath her body felt coarse, sand and gravel irritating her skin. She felt the pain on her naked arms and cheeks where the small stones had dug and cut into her skin. But she was barely bothered by it – at least the dirt underneath her felt cool against her clammy, hot skin. She was either laying in a hot room with a strangely cold floor, or – more likely – was running a fever. Her right side hurt. Piercing, hot pain which seemed to start directly under her ribs and extend around her torso with every breath in shocks of red, hot pain. At least it was easy enough to ignore at the moment, the numbness of her body dulled the pain. No question it was going to get worse once the dullness faded.</p><p>The static in her ears slowly faded. It took her some time to differentiate the different sounds and match them with probable sources.<br/>
Her own breathing was loud in her ears. Possibly because of the shallow breaths she was taking to keep the pain in her side at bay by not moving her ribcage too much with deep breaths.<br/>
There was a low, rhythmic beating, fast and never stopping – right, rain. Rain beating on metal above her. A metal roof? She filed the information away in her mind and focussed on the other sounds. Footsteps, always coming closer and receding again. Furthermore voices, accompanying the footsteps, but also very faintly to make out through the walls.<br/>
People talking in another room, or maybe walking by. They probably knew she was here. A kidnapping? Why else would they be so close to wherever she was without taking care of her wounds? </p><p>Finally, her sight returned. She slowly blinked, the light burning painfully in her eyes. Blueish white light, clearly artificial, filled her vision. Only after a few seconds of adjustment she could slowly take in the environment around her. A small room, with boarded up windows, no furniture and dirt everywhere. If she had to guess, probably an abandoned house. She slowly moved her head – even the smallest movement hurt, her neck and shoulders felt impossibly stiff – probably the rest of her body as well, but she hadn’t dared to move that yet. After shuffling her head around a bit, she could take in the whole room. All the three windows around her had been boarded up, extra supplies of wooden planks, nails and hammers laid in the corner – probably for quite some time already judging by the thin layer of dust covering them.<br/>
There were traces in the dust on the floor – footprints and strange lines between them. Most likely from when her body had been dragged in here and thrown to the floor. She finally spotted the door, which was closed, and in her state, she didn’t have enough energy to crawl over there and try if it was locked or not. Most probably it was, judging by where she was and in which state.<br/>
She slowly laid her head back down on the dusty floor and enjoyed the cool surface against her cheek while she tried to remember how she got here. </p><p>She’d been on the mission with her team. Their duty had been to ensure peace, make sure that they kept their part of the deal and stop any terrorist groups which may have formed upon hearing about the peace contract. Nothing special, she had been on worse missions before.<br/>
She tried to think back – what had gone wrong? Why was she here now?<br/>
She couldn’t tell how much time passed while she lay there and tried to remember. </p><p>She remembered the few seconds before she became unconscious, but that hadn’t been back in the town where they had been stationed. It had been in a strange room, she had been cuffed to a chair, a camera in front of her face and people standing behind it, one next to her talking. She had been able to see out of the corner of her eyes how he had raised his gun and strike her across the head with it.<br/>
Clearly a hostage situation. She had heard about those a lot during training, how to handle them, how to react when getting caught up in one, but never what to do to get out of one.<br/>
Jade let out an amused snort that hurt in her throat. Yeah, she could have needed that now.<br/>
But still, the question stayed: how did she end up in this situation?</p><p>Jade must’ve have dosed off.<br/>
Her body jerked in reflex from being awoken abruptly when the door swung open and loud footsteps and voices entered the room.<br/>
She blinked at the intruders – two men in some kind of military uniform and weapons strapped to their thighs and chest. They talked in abrupt and strange voices – her brain needed a second to catch up with that information. Not English, but the regional language.<br/>
She kept her mouth shut while trying to decipher what they were saying. When the political conflict had started three years ago, she and a few colleagues had started studying their language every evening when sitting together in their rooms after work. She was nowhere educated enough to put their words into sentences or even talk, but enough to get the jist of what they were saying.<br/>
“……didn’t respond……no acknowledgement – might send reinforcement…”<br/>
The man not talking stared down at her. She just stared back, not giving him the satisfaction of looking away first. He just grinned at that, roughly grabbed her by the shoulders and hoisted her up into a standing position.<br/>
She had to blink a few times while swaying on her feet before the spots in her vision diminished enough for her to see. Her whole body ached even more when moved, especially the pain in her side flared up dramatically. She grit her teeth and tried not to show her pain while cuffs were fastened around her wrists and she was dragged out of the room. </p><p>The building outside of her room appeared to be in the same condition as the inside. Boarded up windows, dusty and dirty floors, chipped paint on the walls, no furniture.<br/>
Nowhere any indication of what this building had been before. She tried not to let herself feel annoyed by that. But knowing what these terrorists were using as a hiding place might have helped.<br/>
After a few corridors in the same condition she ignored her surroundings and focussed on making her footsteps less unsure. Might as well appear tough when there’s nothing better to do.<br/>
She was led into a room – a quick look around confirmed it was the same room she had been knocked out in before. She didn’t have much to go on, but they probably didn’t have many rooms with nicely swept floors, furniture and a camera positioned in the middle. Her arms got cuffed to the chair. She refrained from trying to lash out – the ache in her body had gotten less from moving around, but she still didn’t feel like fighting someone right now. So, she just stared at her captors viciously instead. One of them just grinned at her for that. She bared her teeth as an answer.</p><p>The two men left the room shortly after. She wasted a few minutes testing her restraints, but there was no way she was getting out of them without breaking at least a few fingers or dislocating her thumbs. And that would still leave the problem of not knowing where she was and who her captors were. Let alone how to get out of here. Best to just stay put. </p><p>It must’ve been nearly an hour she was left alone in the room before someone else stepped in.<br/>
A middle-aged man with slowly greying beard, wrinkled skin and eyes which portrayed the kindness of a snake ready to strike. Instead of the military uniforms of the men before, he wore normal civilian clothing with no apparent weapons. </p><p>He smiled at her, but there was no kindness in the gesture. If Jade had to classify it, she would have called it “baring your teeth”, not smiling. He stepped closer, not bothering to close the door behind him and pulling another chair close to sit down across from her.<br/>
“Guess you’re their leader?”, she asked in English, fully expecting not to get an answer. No way she was going to let on in front of this guy she could understand them, however tempting it might have been to learn a bit about who they were.<br/>
He only repeated his teeth-baring-smile and leaned forward, resting his chin on one of his hands.<br/>
“Indeed, I am”, he answered after a few moments, seemingly enjoying the short expression of shock on her face as he spoke in nearly perfect English.</p><p>Okay, Jade had not been expecting that. No one around here had made a civilized enough expression her to be able to talk flawless English. The only thing standing out was his pronunciation. It reminded her of how people talked when having a Germanic mother tongue and learning English only late in their adulthood; fully capable of speaking the language, but unable to pronunciate it right due to their tongues never having to vocalize specific sounds before.<br/>
“Ah. Good to know”, she forced herself to say to stop her twirling thoughts about language that would not help her in this moment. “What do you want from me?”, she continued after a beat.<br/>
He sighed and leaned back a bit. “Well. We do not wish to make any troubles with your superiors. But they are loyal to their soldiers, and I heard they tend to pay a lot of money to get their people back home safely.”<br/>
She just gave an amused snort. “Well, fuck you”, she spat, enjoying how his expression darkened upon her swearing. Exactly how her elders always scolded her at family meetings when using swear words. “Let them know where we are and they’ll bomb the place just to get rid of you, no matter if I’m here or not. So, go ahead. You might want to overthink your next step carefully before acting.”</p><p>He was quiet for a few seconds, probably repeating the words she had spoken so hastily in a foreign language in his head. Then, his smile returned. “Oh, they know. They know we have you. But they do not know of our location.”<br/>
She grit her teeth, thinking of the camera in the room and why she had been seated here the last time. “Of course they don’t know”, she spat, thick sarcasm in her voice. Her mind was again working overtime to find a plausible explanation of why terrorists who still used old-fashioned video cameras had the knowledge and technology to keep secret from where they were broadcasting.<br/>
“Yes. But you are right in one regard. They did not seem very cooperative. Maybe they do not care about their soldiers at all.”<br/>
She laughed. “Yeah. Maybe you should’ve asked that before kidnapping one of us.”<br/>
His strange smile appeared again. “Maybe. But then again, you might at least give us some information about how the military will proceed acting against people like us.”<br/>
Jade rolled her eyes at him. “Sure. I’m just gonna tell you every detail of or missions and operations. Are you nuts? Of course not.”<br/>
He sighed. “Too bad, my child. I hoped we could resolve this peacefully.”<br/>
She glared at him. “Yeah, well, once again, you should’ve thought about that before kidnapping me.”<br/>
“Don’t be so disrespectful”, he said, his voice cool and warning. “We saved your life.”<br/>
Jade refrained from rolling her eyes again.<br/>
“You don’t remember, do you”, he went on after a few short moments. “I do admit that the attack you got injured in was our making. But we decided to take you with us afterwards and nurse you back to health. You should thank us, really.”<br/>
Jade bit her lip but stayed quiet.<br/>
Slowly, memories were coming back to her, now that he’d mentioned it.<br/>
Her mouth suddenly felt a lot dryer then it actually was.</p><p>***</p><p>It had been day twenty-two of their operation.<br/>
It had started like any other day. She had gotten up early with her partner George and went for a short run around the base before breakfast. They technically weren’t allowed to leave their base without extra permission or for their daily tasks, but no one complained about that. Their jobs demanded of them to stay fit – but regulations would normally forbid them from working out outside the small base. A typical example of why textbook-rules sometimes had to be broken. Captain Garcia allowed it, sometimes even joined in on their morning runs before the sun came up. The perks of knowing your superior long before working for them. Garcia had overseen their training some years ago, taking up the position to be closer to his then pregnant wife. Even now, he showed slight favouritism for some of the soldiers he had trained back then; Jade would almost consider him a friend. It always felt relaxed when he joined them on their morning runs, not as tense as someone would expect when your superior joined in on hobbies.<br/>
This time, it was only the two of them. </p><p>“It’s gonna be a hot day”, George complained next to her, only slightly out of breath. The sun was starting to rise on the horizon, but the heat already became noticeably thicker around them. Jade only nodded. She had to save her breath; she had never been as good of a runner as George was. He never complained about it. Most days, she managed to keep up with his brutal pace (if only barely), and when not, he slowed down without mentioning it.<br/>
Today, she managed to keep up. Still, she was breathing heavily when they finished their last lap around the base.  George patted her on the shoulder, a grin spreading across his face, before vanishing into his quarters to get ready for the day, shouting a short “See you at breakfast!”, in her direction.<br/>
She slowly trotted back to her room, still working on catching her breath. Her roommates still slept; they had taken over the night shift yesterday. She tried being as quiet as possible when grabbing fresh clothes and tiptoeing around them into the bathroom.<br/>
She had learned to appreciate cold showers in the short time she had been stationed here. Hot days in sweaty, thick military uniforms made the short bursts of cold covering her skin even more pleasurable. Furthermore, it helped her wake up fully in the mornings.<br/>
Other women slowly started filtering into the communal bathrooms. Jade finished brushing her teeth and rubbing sunscreen on her face. She had learned that lesson not to skip out on the cream after two days of being here. She -and many others that didn’t think it would be that bad – had looked like cooked lobsters in uniforms. It had been kind of funny, if not for the strange looks locals gave them, clearly judging “those Americans” for not knowing how to take care of themselves in such hot weather. </p><p>Breakfast went by in a blur. As always, they got a short briefing afterwards, so instead of relaxing and enjoying their meals, everyone just shoved food into their faces as fast as possible before leaving again. George waved at her. She just rolled her eyes and flipped him off as an answer. As usual.<br/>
He only laughed at that, patting her shoulder again in passing, only way harder this time so it nearly sent her flying forward into her breakfast.<br/>
“Fuck off”, she muttered with an amused snort, still chewing on her food.<br/>
“Hurry up then”, was all she received as an answer. She rolled her eyes at that, scanning the table for anything she could hurl at him, but when her eyes finally had settled on a packet of napkins, he was already out of the room. She stood after finishing eating and followed the others outside to receive their daily tasks.</p><p>They started with patrolling around town for a few hours. People were getting nervous, there were whispers about the terrorist organisations which apparently were planning on an attack.<br/>
“It might be just rumours”, their superior, Captain Garcia, had pointed out. “But keep your eyes peeled. See anything suspicious, investigate and alert the forces.”<br/>
They only nodded, one last salute was given, and off they were.</p><p>George was in a good mood. He chatted with some of the locals, asking them for anything suspicious they may have been witnessing, insuring them that they wouldn’t hurt them and were only here to ensure the peace contract was complied with and to take down the terrorist organisation if possible.<br/>
He had always been good with people like that. Jade usually fell back and kept an eye on their surroundings in case of anything suspicious happening behind their backs. People usually trusted George faster than her – he looked the part of ‘intimidating soldier that will protect us’.<br/>
Jade herself was often dismissed as nothing but a girl in military uniform. She wasn’t particularly short, but definitely not tall by all means. Average most likely, she couldn’t tower over someone intimidatingly like George could. She might be more muscular than the average woman, but when wearing uniform, you couldn’t make out things like that. Only things like George’s broad shoulders could be made out through the loose, thick material that made it impossible to guess someone’s body type.<br/>
Furthermore, women weren’t taken very seriously in these countries. Not as disrespected then they were only a few years ago, but still looked down upon.<br/>
Jade was waved off way easier than George was here. They usually stuck together because of that, letting him do the talking and her the scouting. </p><p>The sun was high in the sky, heat beating mercilessly down on them. It was nearing noon. They still hadn’t found anything out of place until now, so they allowed themselves a short break in one of the alleyways which shielded them from the burning sun.<br/>
“These people are still scared of us”, George remarked upon while slowly sipping on his water bottle. Jade rolled her eyes and leaned against the wall. “Of course. We’re soldiers from a different country which they used to be in war with. Why should they trust us?”<br/>
He nodded slowly. “Good point.”  He handed her the water bottle and shook the sweat out of his short hair.<br/>
She made a face at him and snorted a short “watch it” before taking a step back, not wanting to get any sweat beads from his onto her onto her uniform. He grinned at her, making clear that he did it on purpose. She only rolled her eyes and took a sip from the bottle.<br/>
“Let’s just finish patrolling the plaza”, she remarked after a moment. “Captain said he needs us back at base as soon as possible. Let’s get a move on.”<br/>
He sighed. “Never get a moment of rest with you around”, he complained, but his typical, toothy grin spread across his face anyways.<br/>
“Well, one of us has to keep up the quota”, she replied, also smiling, and threw his hat, which he had deposited on one of the crates next to her, his way. “Let’s go. I’d like to be finished with work before sundown today.”<br/>
George only nodded and followed her. </p><p>It had taken them another three hours to finish their patrol. They were both hungry, tired and sweaty by then; their humorous conversations had died a while ago, both of them too tired to care about jokes.<br/>
“Think we’ll be able to call it an early night today?”, George asked while they strolled over the plaza, making their war back to base. Jade let out an amused snort. “No way. As if Captain Garcia would let us waste daylight.”<br/>
George sighed. “You’re right, as always”, he remarked sarcastically. “But let a man have his dreams, would you?”<br/>
Sie rolled her eyes at him and refrained from answering. She was tired. Both of them were tired. Too tired to notice the strange man walking across the plaza, thick coat slung around his frame despite the burning heat, his eyes darting around nervously, his arms slung around his chest and his steps rushed.<br/>
They were halfway across the plaza when George perked up, Jade could feel him tense beside her. “Oh fuck”, he breathed, his arm shot out and pushed jade behind himself. Not standard protocol, which confused her even more. Only when he raised his assault rifle and aimed it at the strange man, she was finally able to assess the situation.<br/>
“Hands up, or I will shoot!”, George shouted. Civilians rushed to safety instantly, they might not have realized what exactly was happening, but they knew it could escalate quickly.<br/>
Jade also drew her assault weapon and stood next to George.<br/>
The man grinned a strange, toothy grin, a cocky grin, no real amusement in his expression. He slowly raised his arms, his coat fell open due to the action, revealing a mess of explosives and cables strapped to his chest.<br/>
“Fuck”, George cursed again under his breath, before raising his voice: “Keep your hands up! Down to your knees!”<br/>
The man lazily kneeled down, his expression souring slightly upon realizing the civilians were now nearly all gone. They had to act fast before he could trigger any of the explosives strapped to him.<br/>
George seemed to realize that as well, he kept his weapon up and moved slowly closer.<br/>
Jade followed him close behind, scanning the area for any other threats.<br/>
They both realized too late that the terrorist held a detonator in his hand. George noticed before her. He let out a warning shout, they were both way too close now. Jade could see the terrorist grinning his strange grin once more before pressing down the button.<br/>
George ran into her, tackling her to the ground. She felt the air being knocked out of her lungs as he came down on her with his full weight, but there was no time to complain about that. She couldn’t see, George’s body on top of her obscured her view, she only felt hot heat washing over her while her eardrums felt like bursting as the world exploded around them.</p><p>***</p><p>The man across from her grinned. “You remember?”<br/>
She kept her lips sealed, but he didn’t seem to need an answer.<br/>
“It was a miracle you survived with so little wounds. We did not expect anyone to survive.”<br/>
Jade closed her eyes for a second to compose herself. Of course. “They’re all dead?”, she asked, hoping he would understand that she was talking about everyone that had been on the plaza. Or more specifically, George. At this moment she didn’t care about the civilians.<br/>
“Oh, yes. You would have been too if your colleague had not so bravely sacrificed himself and act as a shield for you.”<br/>
She opened her eyes abruptly as images of Georges dead body weighing her down appeared in front of her closed eyes at those words. “Shut up”, she hissed at him more aggressively then intended. She couldn’t control the rage bubbling up in her chest right now, only made worse by the smile that crept on his face as he watched her.<br/>
“Or what?”, he asked. “There is nothing you could do.”<br/>
She grit her teeth together and glared at him. How tempting it was to just try getting out of her restraints, kick, hit and shout at him, everything to soothe the burning fire in her chest. He was right. She could not hurt any of them. She couldn’t do anything.<br/>
Two men stepped in again. They talked in their language with the man in front of her – “back to cell…talk tomorrow.” Then her restraints were loosened, the two men hoisted her up to lead her out of the room.<br/>
“You should overthink this”, the man said, still smiling. “If you help us, we might even let you go without your superiors paying us.”</p><p>Jade knew it was a dumb idea. Extremely dumb. But she did it anyways, her body deciding for her before her thoughts were able to stop her and interject ‘This is a bad idea.’<br/>
The two men had not been holding onto her strongly enough, assuming she wouldn’t fight back anyways. Before they could tighten their grip, she had broken loose, made three steps forwards – and oh god did that wound on her side hurt when she tried walking on her own – and smashed her fist right into that infuriating smile on the man’s face.<br/>
She could feel the skin on her knuckles tearing as they connected with his jaw – she hadn’t angled the hit right, but right now, she couldn’t care less. Torn skin was a small price to pay for the surprised yelp the man gave right before cradling his jaw in pain. She felt the two men behind her grab her again, this time gripping her arms harder then before.<br/>
She managed to force a grin on her lips. “Go fuck yourself”, she snarled at the man and bared her teeth while the two men behind her dragged her out of the room. She didn’t fight them, it wouldn’t make a difference. They were shouting things at her, clearly pissed off: like that would make her feel bad. Those assholes had kidnapped her. They shouldn’t expect her to just lie down and take whatever they had planned for her, oh no. She was going to make this hard for them. </p><p>***</p><p>The ‘leader’ was talking to the camera. Jade had no idea what was going on, they had pulled a bag over her head when picking her up from her room (or cell as she preferred to call it). She had only figured out that they were making another one of those typical “hostage situation videos”  to probably sent to her superiors after hearing the man talking about how they wanted “money for our hospitality” as he had called it. She could pick up on how his voice was nasally today. At least they couldn’t see the grin spreading across her face upon realizing that.</p><p>This time, the two men who had picked her up the first few times had been replaced by two other individuals which were now standing behind her, making sure she wouldn’t get the chance to try something dumb while the recording went on.<br/>
Jade hadn’t been sure at first why those two were deemed more competent then the last two – but she had found out rather quickly when trying to resist getting handcuffed and kicking one of the two into the shins, only to realize their shins were harder than usual and made a strange metallic sound. Coupled with their resentment for talking and coldness of their hands on her arms, she assumed them to be androids. It would explain a lot, actually – androids could help transmitting messages without those being able to be tracked digitally. But also, it made her realize how dangerous this situation was becoming. Not only crazy terrorists that were out for blood, oh no. They had to have financial support to be affording androids within their ranks. Furthermore, they probably had bigger plans for the future if they wasted resources to purchase those machines. </p><p>“We do treat our guest with utmost respect”, the man in front of her said, “but we will not be able to keep up our hospitality for much longer. So, choose your next actions wisely.”<br/>
Jade kept her mouth shut this time. But it didn’t stop her from glaring at the camera as the bag was finally removed from her head as the man started talking about how they could always sell someone like her to the human trafficking rings after getting all the information she knew from her.<br/>
Now she could see the bandages over the man’s nose and the purple bruises on his jaw. She seemed to have gotten lucky on that punch. She flexed the fingers of her bruised hand and licked her dry lips to hide another grin that threatened to spread.<br/>
The recording was stopped shortly afterwards. The man turned now, letting out an exaggerated sigh. “What should we do with you”, he said, shaking his head dramatically. She rolled her eyes at that. He sounded like a teacher trying to make clear that you’re in trouble without spelling it out.<br/>
“You could let me go”, she answered. Unhelpful question gets unhelpful answer. What else was there to expect.<br/>
“If they don’t answer”, he continued, ignoring her snippy remark, “it will get nasty for you.”<br/>
She just glared at him, never breaking eye contact. “Oh I hope you’ll make it interesting.”<br/>
It was all a bluff, she was sure that he knew that too. But she wasn’t about to show him how scared she really was.<br/>
He was grinning now too, but due to his bruised jaw he couldn’t replicate that venomous grin he used to spot a few days ago. “Believe me. We will.”</p><p>***<br/>
It was one thing to get briefed on torture methods, but a whole other thing experiencing them.<br/>
Psychological torture wasn’t all that bad – she had endured that in training. 36 hours of total isolation in a dark room had been part of her final tests. It was bearable, even more so with the fever accompanying her wound still raging through her body. Time seemed strange anyways, she could hardly tell if she had been lying on the cold floor in the dark for minutes or hours while always slipping in and out of consciousness. They seemed to catch onto that after only two days. She had only been able to tell that two days had passed because the guards had mentioned it in passing when finally getting her out of the cell.<br/>
The next days also passed in a blur but filled with way more pain in between. She remembered getting her head dunked into water repeatedly, held there no matter how much she struggeled until she nearly passed out, only to be pulled out and screamed at about details of the military operations the American military led here. At first, she had spat insults in their faces, but soon after resorted to saving her breath and just staying quiet. The beatings also followed soon after, but at least those didn’t send her mind into a spiralling panic of ‘I’m gonna die I’m gonna die I’m gonna die’.<br/>
She couldn’t tell how much passed like this. It could have been days, weeks, even months. The only thing helping her keep track of time was the slow healing wound on her side. By now, it was nothing more than angry red scar tissue that still hurt with every stretch and pull that was applied to it.<br/>
What scared her the most about this whole situation was the realization that came to her one evening while lying shivering in her dark, cold room.<br/>
She didn’t care anymore if she lived or died. She wouldn’t be rescued, and death seemed more merciful than the other options. </p><p>***<br/>
It must’ve been at least two weeks after her imprisonment when she was dragged outside into the daylight again. It felt nice on her skin. even with the humid heat beating down on them. The android shoved her to the floor as soon as they were outside.<br/>
A crowd had gattered around them, some only grinning down on her, others mumbling under their breath about things she couldn’t make out with her limited vocabulary.<br/>
She slowly got to her feet, fighting how lightheaded she felt from only standing up. </p><p>Jade knew she was in trouble. Her two guards, one of whom was an android and the other who was human, had been tasked with picking her up once again. But instead of playing along and waiting for her capturers to pick her up, she had attacked them. The human, at least. No use trying to attack a machine.<br/>
She had managed to wiggle a brick out of one of the walls, using it as a weapon and smashing it across the humans skull. The man had sunk to the floor immediately, blood gushing from a laceration near his temple. She had been tackled to the ground by the android too fast to assess how bad the injury was. She didn’t care anyways. </p><p>Even now, surrounded by more people that she could count, some pointing weapons to make sure she stayed where she was and the android breathing down her neck (figuratively speaking, of course. They didn’t breathe), she didn’t regret anything.<br/>
The man who was supposedly the leader of this organisation stepped forward with a false expression of disappointment on his face. “I had hoped you would not try to abuse our hospitality”, he said with a fake sigh. Jade bared her teeth as an answer. “Told you I wouldn’t make it easy on you”, she said.<br/>
“You did”, he agreed. “And still I had hopes those were empty statements.”<br/>
He straightened. “We have laws regarding attacking other people here”, he then said. “While your guard will not be able to attend to fufill his right in this occasion due to his injuries” – he gave her another one of those disappointed looks – “his partner will fill his spot in this case.” Jade kept quiet but raised an eyebrow questioningly. “What’s it gonna be then?”, she managed to say as casual as possible. She nearly regretted asking when that venomous smile spread across his face. “It is policy here to take place in a fight to the death when breaking the law and trying to kill another brother”, he spat matter-of-factly. Oh, now that smile made sense. Of course, they would send an android for that. She was fucked.<br/>
That’s why a crowd had gathered. Of course, this was some sort of sick spectacle for them. The man – the leader – took a step back and nodded at the android behind her. She was pushed forward, into the crowd who parted, taking their places in a circle around them, blocking all possible escape routes. Her handcuffs were taken off.<br/>
Jade could feel her heart pounding in her chest. ‘It doesn’t matter anyways’, she tried telling herself. it was either getting tortured for all eternity, being sold off or dying. No one would come to her rescue. Why would they, anyways.<br/>
She took a deep breath. If this was it, she would at least go down with one hell of a fight. </p><p>Someone shouted something that sounded a lot like “Go!”, and the android sprung into action. God, those things were fast. The lazy mumbling around them swelled into shouting, reminding her of those training fights between colleagues where they would bet who would go down first.<br/>
Only this was a lot more serious.<br/>
Jade managed to block the first few attacks without too many problems. Her forearms hurt from the strain of blocking punches which were thrown with so much force: no doubt she would go down if only one of those hit her in the face or even stomach.<br/>
She refrained from throwing punches herself and concentrated on blocking and dodging, trying to find a pattern in the machines fighting. Those things were programmed, so it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out the pattern.<br/>
At least she thought so.</p><p>The adrenaline which had been shooting through her veins at the beginning of the fight slowly wore off, her focus wavered as fatigue slowly settled in. It was becoming increasingly harder to move her limbs, her feet stumbled on the uneven ground beneath her feet. She had to act soon, or she would be too tired to do so within the next few minutes.<br/>
The android threw another punch, and Jade sprung forwards, tackling the machine to the ground. It had been the first thing she learned in combat training: If your opponent is stronger, close the distance. If they can’t swing arms to gain momentum, even the strongest opponent wouldn’t be able to hurt you. </p><p>It was good advice, but in this moment, Jade discovered that this strategy did not work on androids.<br/>
She was still in the process of getting a good grip on the machines shoulder so she could trap it’s arm between her legs to twist said arm off if needed (people would feel pain and give up, but something told her that thing wouldn’t do so), as it twisted in her grip, ripping its arm from Jades grip and grasping her throat to pin her to the ground like that. She could feel cold fingers tightening around her throat, effectively cutting off her airways and leaving her gasping.<br/>
The crowd around them cheered, the noise slowly growing fainter as her senses became warped with the lack of oxygen.<br/>
Jade managed to lift her right arm, grabbing at the androids long hair and pulling it towards her with one strong tug.<br/>
The machine toppled over, and Jade would have laughed at how easy those wonders of technology were to throw off balance, but than a fist hit her right in the face, a wet crunch confirmed that her nose was definitely broken. She tried ignoring the pain for a moment to suck in a deep breath through her mouth. She tried rolling around, hand still gripping onto the androids hair tightly as if it were a lifeline, as the machine grabbed her arm and squeezed. Her fingers opened automatically, her only advantage she had have slipping.<br/>
She twisted her head to the side to stop the blood gushing from her nose to fill her throat and choke her. The android was suddenly looming above her, one hand on her chest keeping her pinned to the floor. Then, it stepped onto her upper arm with one foot and pressed down.</p><p>She felt her vision swimming, no amount of blinking helped with that issue. Her arm was being crushed, pain raking through her nerves as the android pressed down, slowly applying more and more pressure. Jade might have been screaming. It was hard to make out in the chaotic, loud cheering and the blood rushing through her ears. The pain was overbearing, dulling all of her senses and flooding her brain with messages of ‘Danger Danger Danger hurts too much get out of here….’<br/>
Panic, she realized. Pure panic like she hadn’t experienced in quite a while. Her breathing became laboured as the pain seemingly swallowed up her whole being.<br/>
She heard the loud creaking and crunching as the bone in her arm broke, or more likely was shattered completely under the pressure.<br/>
She could see someone handing the android a knife, which it took without missing a beat. Jade felt herself be scooted up, her ruined arm hanging limp by her side, and a knife pressed against her throat. </p><p>She felt the android behind her, one arm slung across her shoulders to keep her upright and pressing her into it’s chest, while the other arm held the knife to her neck, her action drawn out only for dramatic effect. Jade was sure she would’ve been already dead it not for the crowd demanding a show.</p><p>She remembered how in her college years, people kept telling her that androids would be such a benefit for many people. Elders who couldn’t get around on their own, exhausted parents, businesses in need for cheap labour. No one had mentioned killing machines, she remarked at that memory. Would have been helpful.<br/>
“I installed most central lines to focus on the neck”, she heard a faint memory of a voice echoing in her mind. “Easier to access when needing repairs, and with a small risk of being damaged in everyday life.” She couldn’t quite place who the voice belonged to. It shouldn’t matter right now. She remembered. The thin plating on the back of every android’s neck, only there to keep out dirt particles instead of protecting the sensitive wiring. </p><p>Her left hand shot up to hold back the android from digging the knife into her neck. She knew she only had a few seconds most if it really wanted to kill her now. Hopefully it tried to draw it out into a spectacle.<br/>
Her ruined arm slowly rose behind her head, she had to clench her teeth to ignore the pain shooting through it, making it almost impossible to move. No one payed attention to what she was doing, all of them being too caught up in the thrill of when that thing was finally going to slit her throat. Her ruined fingers finally reached the neck, she took a moment to gather all the strength she had left and smashed it against the panel. It broke easily away. Her fingers dug into the android’s neck. She was unable to tell what exactly she was doing – her fingers were cold, tingling and numb – but she grabbed at whatever she could reach and pulled.<br/>
Behind her, the android’s voicebox glitched when it tried to talk, a gurgling sound leaving its mouth.<br/>
It tried grabbing for Jades arm. She had waited for that. Her left hand still clutched its arm holding the knife, so it had to let go of her shoulders in order to do so. She spun around, still holding onto the arm with the knife, and threw her whole body into its side. The machine went tumbling to the ground, taking her with it. The crowd roared once more. She tried ignoring it. Now she could see the damage she had done to that thing’s neck – barely anything. She had probably only tugged at some wires, triggering a short glitch of its programming, nothing more. It would recover within seconds, she knew she had to act now. Her right arm was useless, she didn’t dare letting go of that arm still holding a knife, so she did the only thing that had a possibility of working – she leapt forward and dug her teeth into the androids neck. </p><p>It hurt, her teeth feeling like they were going to shatter from biting down on plastic and metal tubing, but she refused to let go. She bit down further, as far as possible, and yanked. The android below her spasmed, its limbs flailing out uselessly. The tubing holding the thirium in broke, filling her mouth with the harsh taste of chemicals. She barely managed to keep her teeth clamped and not throw up at the taste. She breathed in through her nose once more, almost impossible with blood clotting up in her nose, yanked again, and the wires finally ripped as well. The android went still below her. She finally let go, her jaw aching from being clamped around that things neck for so firmly, and spit out as much of the disgusting, warm liquid still in her mouth. The floor below her was painted blue. The crowd slowly stopped cheering once they realized what had happened.<br/>
Jade slowly sat back, looking up. Another android stood motionless next to the cheering crowd, it’s eyes black and spinning. It was recording, she realized after a second. A laugh bubbled up in her throat. They had probably hoped to capture the moment she got killed to send to her superiors. She spotted the leader of the terrorist group, face white and stiff, like frozen to an unreadable mask. She spat out once more to try getting rid of the stinging taste of chemicals, then she slowly got to her feet.<br/>
That seemed what snapped the terrorists back into action, some of them screamed at her – probably cursing – others turned to leave, shaking heads and mumbling under their breath, at least four of the guards stepped forward to restrain her once again. She let them. They seemed to fear her now. She felt tremendously better upon realizing that. </p><p>***<br/>
She spent the next two days alone in her cell.<br/>
No one came to talk, interrogate or torture her. Only once a day her human guard brought food. He was always accompanied by two other androids, a thick bandage wrapped around his head and hatred in his eyes. </p><p>She was left alone in the dark, the light in the room never going on, only for a few minutes when the guard brought her food to ensure he could see if she tried something. So she mostly lay on the ground, squeezing her eyes shut and trying to will her mind into replaying memories in her head to distract herself from the current situation. Most times, she was thrown back into reality when she moved her arm accidentally, causing pain to shoot up from her fingers to the worst part on her upper arm and up to her collarbone. It was worse than the burning pain in her side from the bomb which had finally healed.<br/>
Just her luck.<br/>
Someone had come to rearrange her nose, talking something about how they wouldn’t get much money for her if they sold her with a crooked nose. That comment had made the nausea in her throat swell up once again. He had smiled at her afterwards with false politeness and patted her on the arm as if to be sympathetic, but she was sure he knew that he was patting her injured arm, making the gesture more of a statement about how they would only help her if it would benefit them later, not to make it better for her.<br/>
She had known it already, but it made her hatred for these people grow even more.</p><p>Two days after the fight, she was dragged back into the main room where the leader already waited. Her arms were cuffed to the chair once again, someone fumbled around with the camera. If she had to guess, the camera was only there because the leader felt more comfortable talking to the device instead of to an android who recorded.<br/>
Similar to how the old people in her housing complex refused to buy computers because they were so foreign to them.<br/>
The camera was switched on, the leader turned to the device with his typical venomous grin. “This will be our last message to you”, he said in a fake disappointed voice. “Due to your lack of response, we understand you will not comply with our demands. No worries, we will find a place for your subordinate.”<br/>
He let out a fake sigh. Oh, how Jade despised him for this badly played concern.<br/>
“There were a few complications, I am afraid”, he went on. “We have our policies here. And everyone that does not obey has to pay the consequences.”<br/>
He turned to jade, his fake smile now directed at her. “You killed one of our people”, he said. “And now, you will have to take your punishment for that.”<br/>
She needed a moment to process that. “Are you seriously talking about the android?”, she spat after a few seconds. “That thing would have killed me! You said yourself, a fight to the death or whatever shit that was!”<br/>
He even ignored her swearing this time and nodded at one of the androids standing guard next to the door. She spotted her human guard, who was spotting a strangely satisfied grin.<br/>
The android stepped next to the leader, a huge knife in his hand. Another android appeared next to her, grabbing hold of her right arm and pinning it down onto the armrests of her chair. She hissed at him in pain, her eyes looking down at where he had grabbed her.<br/>
It was the first time since the fight that she dared to view her arm. it made her heart stutter in her chest out of pure horror. Her fingers were pure black, the rest a dark purple mess, her upper arm looked flatter and broader than it should have.<br/>
It brought the nauseating feeling she had felt last time when tasting thirium right back. One more second and she would have puked on the floor right in front of those terrorists.<br/>
She managed to tear her eyes away from the mangled mess that had once been her arm, only to see the android with the knife coming closer to her.<br/>
“What are you doing”, she managed to croak, fear now apparent in her voice. “Get the fuck away from me!”<br/>
She tried kicking it, but the machine dodged her flailing limbs with ease, settled down right next to the other one that was still holding her arm, and looked over to the leader for further instructions.<br/>
“Just be grateful that we do not take your other arm as a punishment”, the man only said before standing up and leaving the room. Asshole couldn’t even stay and witness what he had ordered. She tried kicking once again, but to no avail. Cold liquid was poured over her arm, something to disinfect maybe.<br/>
“The less you move, the easier it will be on all of us”, the android stated with his robotic, emotionless voice. Jade caught a glimpse of the human guard, still watching everything with a pleased expression on her face.<br/>
Then the android put the knife on her skin, right above the smashed bit on her upper arm, and pushed down.<br/>
It didn’t take her long to lose consciousness this time. She welcomed it.</p><p>***</p><p>This time, she didn’t wake up slowly from her unconsciousness. Her mind also didn’t drift around like last time.<br/>
This time, it was a wave of coldness that washed over her, coupled with the short sensation of being unable to breathe. Only upon waking up enough to register her surroundings, she felt the wetness on her skin, and when she opened her eyes, the human guard stood over her, empty bucket in hand and a grin on his face.<br/>
She coughed to get rid of the small amount of water which had managed to get into her lungs and tried sitting up. Only when nearly falling over she realized something was missing. She leaned heavily onto her left arm and looked down to her right.<br/>
She didn’t know how long she’d been looking, her brain needed at least a few seconds to realize why she couldn’t move her right arm. Because there was nothing to move. Most of her arm was missing, only half of her upper arm still there, wrapped in blood-soaked bandages. She could only feel dull pain within her arm, but it wasn’t even as bad as the pain her arm had been in before.<br/>
‘Maybe because there’s less left that can hurt’, a small voice remarked in her head, probably the part of her consciousness that was too detached from the situation to find some sick kind of humour in it.<br/>
“What the fuck did you do”, she spat at the guard. He only smiled and pulled her up by her remaining arm. </p><p>She nearly tripped, her vision swam in front of her eyes. It took her some time to adjust, and when she finally managed to take in her surroundings again without feeling woozy, they were already out in the hallway. This time, they passed all doors which she had been dragged in before, following the hallway to its end.<br/>
“Where’re we going now?”, she snarled at her guards, but no answer as always.<br/>
They passed some other people, all seemingly in a good mood. Something must’ve happened to make those bastards so cheerful. She wasn’t sure if whatever had happened would provoke the same reaction in her.<br/>
They finally reached the door at the end of the hallway. The guard opened it, and Jade had to blink once again to regain her vision in the bright sunlight. It must’ve been near noon according to where the sun stood in the sky.<br/>
The guard talked to some people, all in uniforms and armed. He dragged Jade behind him and urged her to climb into the back of some off-road vehicle (she recognized it to be a military-issued vehicle, but couldn’t pinpoint the exact model); she complied, curious to see where this would be going. Probably something bad. but she didn’t care anymore. Maybe she would be able to smash the guards head in once again when he wasn’t paying attention.<br/>
The guard climbed in afterwards, the rest of the armed men also taking their position next to them. Jade kept her mouth shut. They all looked like people that shouldn’t be pissed off too much, and they all were armed heavily.<br/>
The car started driving.</p><p>She tried to come up with an explanation for the situation she was in now.<br/>
Their leader had talked about either killing her or selling her off if she wouldn’t comply.<br/>
Were they driving somewhere into the dessert to just shoot her? It sounded unlikely. There might be a possibility of them not wanting to outright kill people in their base, but then they probably wouldn’t have let that android fight her as well, seeing as there had been a high probability of death.<br/>
The other possibility would be that they were selling her into human trafficking, but then why were they dropping her somewhere off with a truck full of armed men? Surely, there wouldn’t be the need for such precautions in that case. It just didn’t make sense. </p><p>They drove for at least an hour. Jade felt her tongue sticking to the roof of her mouth in the heat, it was reaking of sweat within the confined space of the car. No one dared to open the windows: it would only let more heat and sand inside.<br/>
Despite the anxiety building in her chest, Jade was relieved when they finally arrived.<br/>
The armed men got out first, her guard dragged her outside as soon as they gave the all-clear.<br/>
Only when they got out and rounded the vehicle, she spotted three other vehicles in the distance.<br/>
She blinked a few times, confusion rising in her chest: she recognized those vehicles. American military issued L-ATV.<br/>
Three people were coming towards them from those vehicles, the terrorists only waited.</p><p>Only when they came to a stop before them, Jade realized what was happening. Two of the soldiers were carrying heavy boxes strapped to their backs which they let fall to the sandy floor as soon as they stopped in front of the terrorists.<br/>
She didn’t recognize those two, but the third soldier accompanying them, she did.<br/>
Captain Garcia stepped forward and opened one of the heavy containers, revealing stacks of money within. One of the terrorists stepped forward and looked over both containers.<br/>
Jade felt Garcia looking at her. There was pity in his eyes; she felt shame and embarrassment wash over her. She had imagined that if they would pay for her to be released, she would still have been kicking and lashing out at her captors upon being let go. But now, they didn’t even have to handcuff her to make sure she didn’t pose a threat.<br/>
The terrorist finished checking the money and yelled something she couldn’t quite understand at his colleagues. The guard released Jades arm and pushed her forward. She nearly tripped, but caught herself in the last second.<br/>
The situation was bad enough already, she didn’t need to trip in front of everyone as well.<br/>
The terrorists didn’t wait; they grabbed the containers and heaved them into the car. The motor was roaring behind them even before Jade had made it over to where Garcia was standing.<br/>
She cleared her throat and stood a bit straighter. “Captain”, she remarked, noting how the two soldiers next to him seemed to look her over. Also with pity in their eyes. She hated it. He only nodded and dismissed the two soldiers which turned on their heels to return to the vehicles. “Get the medic ready”, Garcia barked at them before they were out of hearing range. Only then, he turned to Jade, his eyes turning soft. He sighed, then pulled her into a hug against his chest. “I’m sorry it took so long, kid”, he muttered silently.<br/>
Jade only let out a long exhale, not daring to move or even hug back. She knew she would cry on the spot if she did that. And she did want to keep up her tough appearance as far as possible for as long as possible right now.<br/>
Garcia seemed to realize that, he pulled back. “Listen”, he said, looking back to the vehicles for a second before facing her again, “it took a lot to persuade my superiors to help. It’s mostly thanks to the government, they got a hold of the last video those terrorists sent….” He sighed and shook his head. “…that’s a story for later. Just know there’s a lot of politics involved, and the higher ups aren’t very happy about that. Ignore whatever insults they may throw your way.”<br/>
She only took a deep breath. “I didn’t expect to be rescued”, she remarked shortly. Garcia only nodded. “I’m sorry about that, I truly am. If it would have been in my hands, you would have been out of that situation weeks ago.”<br/>
Weeks ago. She felt a chill running down her spine upon that mention: she still had no idea how long she had been there.<br/>
“it doesn’t matter now”, she muttered under her breath while they both turned and started walking towards the vehicles. Garcia only nodded shortly and followed her. She was glad he didn’t continue apologizing about what he hadn’t been able to do. She didn’t want to think about the ‘What ifs’ right now.</p><p>Upon arriving at the vehicles, one of the medics ushered her into the back of one of the cars, checking her injuries. He left her arm for last, slowly unwrapping the bloody bandages. She grit her teeth when the dried blood stuck to the bandages, even the short soaking in water the medic had done couldn’t help that. He shot her a short, apologetic look and kept peeling off the fabric.<br/>
She leaned back and closed her eyes, trying to tune out all the sounds around her.<br/>
“I hope this shit was worth it to you, Captain”, she heard voices outside. “It only cost us a small fortune to bring your soldier back, not to mention she isn’t even fit for being a soldier anymore!”<br/>
“I am well aware, Sir”, she heard Garcia answer.<br/>
The unknown voice let out an enraged snarl. “This is why we proposed to have all soldiers replaced by androids. None of those rescue missions needed to keep up our image.”<br/>
Jade felt her blood run cold upon hearing that. Memories of that android crushing her arm flooded back to her, how it had been able to easily overpower her. She clenched her fist and tried to keep the rising panic at bay.<br/>
“We will talk to Cyberlife about that”, Garcia replied soothingly. “But until the change is made, we shouldn’t talk about such things.”<br/>
The other voice sighed. “I hope she will be able to help solve this mess as you promised she would.”<br/>
“Of course, she will, Sir”, Garcia only answered, the voices grew fainter as they seemed to be walking away.<br/>
Jade felt the shiver running down her spine once again. </p><p>The medic mumbled to himself, the worried expression on his face only intensifying over time.<br/>
“Medic, we’re leaving in a few minutes”, she heard Garcias voice after a few minutes. He stuck his head into the vehicle. she could still see that worried expression on his face, and she still hated it.<br/>
“Yes sir”, the man still working on her arm answered, and Garcia came closer, also looking at the wound. “How’s it looking?”, he asked, but the medic only shook his head. “Not good, it’s infected.” He raised his eyes at Jade and rummaged around to get out a syringe. “I’ll have to sedate you if we want any chance to stop the infection from spreading now”, he explained and wiped the crook of her arm with disinfectant. She only nodded and looked at Garcia. “What did you tell them I could help them with?”, she asked, panic clear in her voice.<br/>
Garcia only sighed and watched as the medic inserted the needle into her vein. “We’ll talk about that once we’re back in safety and you’re taken care of”, he only answered. “Don’t worry.”<br/>
Those words changed nothing about the panicked feeling that seemed to overtake her whole body as she felt her consciousness slipping from her once again.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I decided to post this again as a single chapter, because it's not necessary to read this before reading "Monsters among us" and it should stand as a seperate work in my opinion.<br/>Let me know what you think:)</p></blockquote></div></div>
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